7/24/2019 Consumer preferences for electric vehicles: a literature review: Transport Reviews: Vol 37, No 3

psyc o og ca stud es.

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This review utilises the framework applied in economic studies for two reasons: rst,
manygovernments
PDF  or car manufacturers aim to increase EV adoption by improving EV
attributes or the supporting service system (e.g. charging infrastructure etc.), and
discrete choice analysis – used by economic studies – is more suitable for evaluating
the potential e ectiveness of these policies or strategies. The second reason is that it
can relatively easily incorporate factors and theories from psychological studies.

Figure 1 presents our framework. Vehicle adoption is essentially choosing a vehicle

from the given set of alternatives. Although there are other possible decision rules,
decision-makers are most commonly assumed to choose the alternative that
maximises their utility. The utility of each alternative is generally assumed to be a
linear combination of all the attributes of the alternative multiplied by a taste
parameter that denotes the weight of the attribute for an individual. Choice data are
used to calibrate discrete choice models by estimating the value of taste parameters in
utility functions. To include preference heterogeneity (the value of taste parameters
varies in the population) many choice studies include individual-related variables to
capture heterogeneity. These variables either directly in uence utilities or moderate
the relationship between attributes and utilities.

Figure 1. Conceptual framework of EV preference.

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7/24/2019 Consumer preferences for electric vehicles: a literature review: Transport Reviews: Vol 37, No 3

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2.2. Review of modelling techniques

We mainly focus on studies applying the economic approach, while other studies are
also mentioned if their ndings highlight additional factors and relationships. Table 1
gives an overview of the studies reviewed.

Table 1. Overview of studies.

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All studies are based on SP (stated preference) data due to the lack of a large-scale
presence of EVs in the market. SP data is collected by choice experiments in which
respondents making one choice from given set of alternatives. Attribute values vary
between alternatives and can be hypothetical.

As for data analysis, the mainstream choice model has evolved: rst, most studies only
estimated the most basic MultiNomial logit (MNL) model (McFadden, 1974). However,

MNL assumes independence from irrelevant alternatives (IIAs), which does not hold in
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most cases. Thus, some studies used nested logit models to relax the restriction of IIA
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